Some, but not all, of the 30+ computers on our network take forever to load the personal settings. It takes at 4 to 5 minutes to get to the desktop. I've tried others advice to run spyware, virus scans, defrags, etc.. but no change. I also confirmed this when i had to replace a HD that went bad. It was a new install, no symantec or anything installed yet and it took forever to load the personal settings everytime i rebooted or logged in/out. I believe it has to do something the DNS setup on the new Server 2003(not my area of expertise). And i wasn't the one who set it up so if you ask me what all was done or how DNS was setup on the server, i have no idea. But if you can make suggestions or have me to look for something i'll find it. One thing i did try that worked... The computer that i had just installed the HD in was set to Dynamic IP. Out of curiosity, i changed it to Static, set all the IP's and now it loads the personal settings in about 10 seconds. I haven't checked all the other computers but my computer is also static and it loads quickly. If i had to guess i would say that all the Dynamic IP computers are the slow ones. I wouldn't mind setting all the rest of the computers to Static IP since there are only about 30 of them but this defeats the purpose of DNS. And we are about to purchase 30 or so tablet PC's for the staff and i dont want to have a problem with those. Thanks in advance.

If you're running a DHCP server service at the 2003 server, there are several things you can configure, so that all PCs, which get's a dynamic ip also gets the dns server, standard gateway a.s.o. So what you can check is: 1. open a dox box 2. type in ipconfig /all You have to do this on one pc with static and on one with dynamic ip. Compare the given output. Maybe there is a configured a wrong standard gateway or a wrong dns. Paul

Thanks Paul, this is where the problem is. The static computer's DNS is pointing to "192.168.2.3" which is our DC. When i checked the dynamic computer it's DNS was pointing to two other DNS's that I did not recognize. I looked into it and found that those two DNS IP's were coming from the linksys router where i guess it is set for our static IP from our ISP provider. So on the dynamic computer i left the IP to automatically detect, but set the DNS to 192.168.2.3 and it works fine. I'm not sure this is how it is supposed to be set but it works. If there is anything else i need to change or check just let me know. Thanks, Joe

So it seems, that the Linksys Router also acts as an DHCP Server. Two DHCP Server always makes trouble. You can disable DHCP in the Linksys Router and the problem is solved. Paul

Thanks Paul, thats what i was thinking but i'm no expert when it comes to actual networking. I'm more of a jack of all trades, master of a couple. :) I'll get with the guy that installed the servers (outsourced) and see why he has the router set to DHCP. He may have something else going i dont know about. But in the mean time it is working by having it auto assign an IP then point the DNS manually. Thanks again Paul.

No problem !!!